MSU Extension Winter Ag Series

It is that time of year again for our Annual MSU Extension Winter Ag Series. The Extension Winter Series program is a cooperative effort between the region’s County Extension offices. Each year a series of lectures are presented in each of the Southeast Montana counties providing timely information of interest to our rural population.

The Winter Ag Series will be held in ten locations January 22nd through the 26th. The program will be in Jordan and Circle on Jan. 22, Broadus and Ekalaka on Jan. 23, Baker and Wibaux on Jan. 24, Glendive and Terry on Jan. 25, and Miles City and Forsyth om Jan. 26.

The Winter Ag series in Ekalaka will be on Tuesday, January 23 and will be held at the Parish Hall. The first lecture will be at 4:00 pm. Jim Bauder will lecture on the topic of “Water Quality and Irrigation Management.” Following that lecture, at 5:00 pm, will be Chet Hill who will discuss “Controlling Marestail and Narrowleaf Hawksbeard.” After that, there will be a break for a meal. Following the meal will be Ryan Buetow, who will talk about “Cropping Strategies to Reduce Soil Salinity.” Then, at 7:30 pm, Kevin Sedivec will end the evening by discussing “Controlling Kentucky Bluegrass”.

The next day, January 24, the Winter Ag series will move on to Baker. The lectures will be held at the Fallon County Fairgrounds and will begin at 11:00 am with Jim Bauder discussing “Water Quality and Irrigation Management.” After the first lecture there will be a break for a meal. After the meal, at 12:30 pm, Chet Hill will begin their lecture on “Controlling Marestail and Narrowleaf Hawksbeard.” At 1:30 pm Ryan Buetow will begin lecturing about “Cropping Strategies to Reduce Soil Salinity”. To wrap up the afternoon, at 2:30 pm, Kevin Sedivec will talk about “Controlling Kentucky Bluegrass.”

Here is some more information about the topics that will be covered.

• Controlling Marestail and Narrow Leaf Hawksbeard- Chet Hill

Chet is an Agronomist with Hefty Seed in his home-town of Sidney, Montana. He Graduated with a Bachelor and Master Degree in Agricultural Economics from North Dakota State University. Chet spent 8 years as County Extension Agent in Culbertson, MT and 14 years as Area Extension Specialist at the Williston Research Extension Center, prior to Hefty Seeds. He emphasis is on Marketing, general agronomy, pulse crops, a little of everything!

• Water Quality (Irrigation, Livestock and Domestic Water)- Jim Bauder

Jim Bauder is Emeritus Professor of soil science and water quality at Montana State University, where he lead the soil and water quality Extension program from 1980 to 2014. He also directed an applied research program which focused on assessing and managing the impacts of large-scale land use practices on agricultural productivity. He has extensive knowledge and experience with water quality management, particularly addressing use of limited water supplies and saline water.

• Cropping Strategies to Reduce Soil Salinity- Ryan Buetow

Ryan Buetow is the area extension cropping systems specialist at the Dickinson Research Extension Center. Buetow attended North Dakota State University, where he pursued an undergraduate degree in crop and weed science and a master’s degree in plant sciences with work in nitrogen management in soybean and dry bean. He is currently working on observing the effects of rotation, nitrogen, and fungicide on foliar diseases of wheat, strategies to reduce soil salinity/sodicity, nitrogen management of soybean, effect of plant population of soybean, and dust management in different cropping systems.

• Controlling Kentucky Bluegrass – Dr. Kevin Sedivec

Dr. Kevin Sedivec is the Extension Rangeland Specialist with NDSU Extension Service, Range Professor and Interim Director of the Central Grasslands Research and Extension Center. Dr. Sedivec has a B.S. in Wildlife Management, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Science and Range Science. He started working on managing Kentucky bluegrass in rangelands in 2005. He will discuss management and control options for Kentucky bluegrass that is invading rangelands of eastern Montana.

Pesticide Points are pending. If you have questions or would like more information please contact the Fallon/Carter County Extension Office. Please RSPV by January 16th. (406) 778-7110 or falloncarter1@montana.edu.